The Divemaster Experience

After two weeks on the island of Koh Tao, I am now half-way through my Divemaster internship and loving it! The days have flown by here and I’ve been racking up dives faster than I can count. With every day filled with fun dives, skill circuits, course assists, customer service, knowledge reviews and exams, I have definitely been fully submerged in the world of scuba diving.
Koh Tao is one of the most popular scuba destinations in Thailand. The island is surrounded by dive sites, which offer a diversity from wrecks and buoyancy parks to shallow corals and deep diving with Cobia and possibly whale sharks. Koh Tao is also one of the least developed Thai islands – which is actually quite sad, in my opinion, given that it’s much more developed than I expected. The main beach, Sairee Beach, is lined with shops, restaurants, hostels and dive shops, including mine, SimpleLife Divers.

The Divemaster internship with SimpleLife Divers is perfect for anyone looking to enter the professional diving industry or anyone just wanting to have some fun improving their dive skills. Personally, I don’t intend to use my Divemaster qualification professionally, but the internship is a great way for me to dive 2-4 times everyday while becoming apart of a resident community on the island. I’m not only learning to lead dives and master my underwater skills, I am also learning how to run a dive shop, manage customers and maintain equipment.

When I’m not diving during the day, I’m soaking up the sun or off exploring other parts of the island. In a short 45 minute walk, I’m on the coast opposite Sairee Beach or at the top of the hill taking in the views. The beaches on the other side are much more secluded and laid back than the main tourist drag, and the cliff jumping is awesome.

After a long, busy day on the boat, the SimpleLife crew heads down the beach to sip some beers or mango smoothies and watch the sunset at our favored bar, O’Chai’s. Our adopted street dog, Jake, also joins us under the table each evening as we stuff our faces with deliciously spicy noodles, soup, or curry.

There is not a single thing I could complain about here. The people are awesome and I am always in good company. The food is delicious and plentiful. The water is warm and the sun is practically always shinning. I am learning from some great divers and have already spent more than 1,000 cherished minutes under the sea. I only need two more things to make my Divemaster experience complete: my husband (arriving in a few days) and a whale shark. Fingers crossed I get both! (Think: whale shark, whale shark, whale shark).

Yay!! Thank you for your thoughts!!!! Keep ’em coming. I always remember the night dive in Oz with the shark circling below. I did a night dive here too! The phytoplankton glow in the water! Just like in The Beach 🙂 Miss you!, xoxo

Hi im from the UK and I am seriously looking into doing the 2 month divemaster internship with Simple Life Dive and was just looking for some more information such as best time of year to go, how much did it cost in total for the course (which I know j approx £2500) but how much spending money would be required? Any info or tips would be greatly appreciated, many thanks!
Dan

Hey Dan, thanks for your comment! You should definitely do your DM with SimpleLife! They have different options available, so prices can vary. They are very good at answering your specific questions though. For spending money I averaged about 400 bhat, but you can quickly spend more if you have more than a few drinks. Other tips would be definitely spend at least 2 months doing the course. I did it in one month and it was rushed. I also didn’t buy any gear through the shop because I’m doing further traveling, but it would have been nice to have my own gear. You’ll need certain equipment to be act as a DM anyways, such as a dive computer, compass and SMB. Anyway, it’s a great group of people and loads of fun! I wish I could do it all over again. Have fun!